Having stated his interest in a new forward for a while and his wishes finally being answered with the arrival of Shawn McCoulsky and the return of Christian Doidge, Cooper says his defensive players deserve as many plaudits.

“Everyone’s talking about the depth of strikers we’ve got and I mentioned to the boys they were tremendous today,” he told the club’s official website.

“They kept a clean sheet, I was pleased and they defended really well.”

In a game where Forest Green had more of the chances, and after naming an unchanged side for the fourth consecutive game, Cooper believes the more important thing is that Rovers came away with at least a point.

Read More

“Today I was pleased, we did really well and we’ve kept a clean sheet.

“The boys played really well and some of the football again was brilliant, especially in the first half.

“Some of the movement and the chances we created were sensational and we couldn’t do much more than that, apart from stick it in the back of the net.”

Reece Brown (Image: SIMON PIZZEY)

Midfielder Reece Brown had another impressive game and would perhaps feel unfortunate that he was unable to add either a goal or assist to his strong showing against the 11 placed Lactics.

“He had a great strike, one that hit the bar and both posts,” said Cooper.

“He played a great ball through to Willo (George Williams) and he was magical in the first-half.

“He can’t do much more than that.

“His job is to provide the passes that leads to the goals and he did that.”

Weather conditions worsened in the second-half and this would do nothing to help the likeliness of an opening goal in the game with Cooper calling it “a monsoon of a second-half.

“That made it difficult and every time we crossed it, the linesman put his flag up in the second half,” he said.

“So we realised then we were never going to score and we had to make sure we took a clean sheet.”

Mark Cooper (Image: SIMON PIZZEY)

Despite a potentially disappointing draw against Oldham, Forest Green continue their impressive unbeaten run of six games and now look ahead to their next home games against Bury and Grimsby respectively.

“We have to keep going,” said Cooper.

“It’s another point and we leave here slightly frustrated because we haven’t won.

“But we look at the bigger picture and it’s a way point and we now have two home games to come.”